KABUL // A Taliban suicide bomber killed three people on an Afghan army bus in Kabul on Thursday.
It was the third such attack since the new government signed a deal for US troops to stay in the country beyond 2014.
On Wednesday, Taliban suicide bombers killed at least seven people in twin attacks on two buses carrying Afghan soldiers.
The militant group, which claimed responsibility for all three blasts, strongly opposes the US troop agreement that was signed on Tuesday, President Ashraf Ghani’s first day in office.
The deputy spokesman for the ministry of defence, Dawlat Waziri, confirmed the suicide attack killed three people and wounded eight.
After Wednesday’s blasts, the Taliban said they were sending “a clear message to the stooge government that signed the slave pact, and we will step up our attacks after this”.
The long-delayed security agreement between the US and Afghanistan allows about 10,000 US troops to stay in the country next year - it represented a major step towards mending frayed ties betweenboth countries.
The agreement was signed by Afghanistan’s new national unity government, which was formed under a US-brokered agreement to resolve months of disputes over who won the fraud-tainted presidential election.
Mr Ghani, who was declared the election winner, agreed to a power-sharing deal with his poll rival Abdullah Abdullah, who has taken up the new role of chief executive.
On Wednesday, the elusive Taliban leader Mullah Omar released his traditional Eid message to his followers.
It dismissed the elections as “a publicity stunt” and said that the US had “lost all possibilities to win” the war, but made no direct mention of the security pact or the new government.
Hamid Karzai, who stood down as president on Monday, had refused to sign the security deal, underlining rocky Afghan-US relations over recent years.
Nato’s follow-up mission, which will take over on January 1, will be made up of 9,800 US troops and about 3,000 soldiers from Germany, Italy and other member countries.
The Taliban have launched a series of recent offensives that have severely tested Afghan soldiers and police, as the US-led Nato combat operations prepare to leave the country at the end of the year.
The new mission – named Resolute Support – aims to help Afghan forces as they take on the militants, in parallel with US counter-terrorism operations.
* Agence France-Presse
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The Bio
Hometown: Bogota, Colombia
Favourite place to relax in UAE: the desert around Al Mleiha in Sharjah or the eastern mangroves in Abu Dhabi
The one book everyone should read: 100 Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. It will make your mind fly
Favourite documentary: Chasing Coral by Jeff Orlowski. It's a good reality check about one of the most valued ecosystems for humanity
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TALE OF THE TAPE
Manny Pacquiao
Record: 59-6-2 (38 KOs)
Age: 38
Weight: 146lbs
Height: 166cm
Reach: 170cm
Jeff Horn
Record: 16-0-1 (11 KOs)
Age: 29
Weight: 146.2lbs
Height: 175cm
Reach: 173cm
Russia's Muslim Heartlands
Dominic Rubin, Oxford
Three-day coronation
Royal purification
The entire coronation ceremony extends over three days from May 4-6, but Saturday is the one to watch. At the time of 10:09am the royal purification ceremony begins. Wearing a white robe, the king will enter a pavilion at the Grand Palace, where he will be doused in sacred water from five rivers and four ponds in Thailand. In the distant past water was collected from specific rivers in India, reflecting the influential blend of Hindu and Buddhist cosmology on the coronation. Hindu Brahmins and the country's most senior Buddhist monks will be present. Coronation practices can be traced back thousands of years to ancient India.
The crown
Not long after royal purification rites, the king proceeds to the Baisal Daksin Throne Hall where he receives sacred water from eight directions. Symbolically that means he has received legitimacy from all directions of the kingdom. He ascends the Bhadrapitha Throne, where in regal robes he sits under a Nine-Tiered Umbrella of State. Brahmins will hand the monarch the royal regalia, including a wooden sceptre inlaid with gold, a precious stone-encrusted sword believed to have been found in a lake in northern Cambodia, slippers, and a whisk made from yak's hair.
The Great Crown of Victory is the centrepiece. Tiered, gold and weighing 7.3 kilograms, it has a diamond from India at the top. Vajiralongkorn will personally place the crown on his own head and then issues his first royal command.
The audience
On Saturday afternoon, the newly-crowned king is set to grant a "grand audience" to members of the royal family, the privy council, the cabinet and senior officials. Two hours later the king will visit the Temple of the Emerald Buddha, the most sacred space in Thailand, which on normal days is thronged with tourists. He then symbolically moves into the Royal Residence.
The procession
The main element of Sunday's ceremonies, streets across Bangkok's historic heart have been blocked off in preparation for this moment. The king will sit on a royal palanquin carried by soldiers dressed in colourful traditional garb. A 21-gun salute will start the procession. Some 200,000 people are expected to line the seven-kilometre route around the city.
Meet the people
On the last day of the ceremony Rama X will appear on the balcony of Suddhaisavarya Prasad Hall in the Grand Palace at 4:30pm "to receive the good wishes of the people". An hour later, diplomats will be given an audience at the Grand Palace. This is the only time during the ceremony that representatives of foreign governments will greet the king.
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GIANT REVIEW
Starring: Amir El-Masry, Pierce Brosnan
Director: Athale
Rating: 4/5
Normcore explained
Something of a fashion anomaly, normcore is essentially a celebration of the unremarkable. The term was first popularised by an article in New York magazine in 2014 and has been dubbed “ugly”, “bland’ and "anti-style" by fashion writers. It’s hallmarks are comfort, a lack of pretentiousness and neutrality – it is a trend for those who would rather not stand out from the crowd. For the most part, the style is unisex, favouring loose silhouettes, thrift-shop threads, baseball caps and boyish trainers. It is important to note that normcore is not synonymous with cheapness or low quality; there are high-fashion brands, including Parisian label Vetements, that specialise in this style. Embraced by fashion-forward street-style stars around the globe, it’s uptake in the UAE has been relatively slow.
Brief scores
Toss India, chose to bat
India 281-7 in 50 ov (Pandya 83, Dhoni 79; Coulter-Nile 3-44)
Australia 137-9 in 21 ov (Maxwell 39, Warner 25; Chahal 3-30)
India won by 26 runs on Duckworth-Lewis Method
The five pillars of Islam
Desert Warrior
Starring: Anthony Mackie, Aiysha Hart, Ben Kingsley
Director: Rupert Wyatt
Rating: 3/5
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